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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Ta-Da! I actually have a finished project to show. This little quilt is not residing at my house though. Libby at Paper Napkin Poetry sent me two string blocks from the thirties. She said she knew I'd find something cool to do with them. Well, I think the blocks are pretty great so I hope I did justice by them. Because she sent two blocks I thought I'd send her a finished project and keep the second one. I know when I see mine I'll think of her and I hope she does the same for me.

This is how the blocks arrived.

Paper backing still attached from Nickles Bakery in Ohio!

After carefully removing the paper I filled the sink with Oxy clean and lukewarm water. This is what the water looked like from the fabric after 80 years!! I filled several sinks until the water was clean.

I laid them out to dry on a big beach towel. I ironed and mended a few seams.

I had some old flour or sugar sacks so I split them open on the seam and appliqued the star down. After finishing the first one I realized I appliqued it on my square WRONG!! It should be on like a pieced 8 pointed star. I'm not un-appliqueing it but decided to keep this one for myself and put the other one on "right" for Libby. Can you see the differenece?

I hand quilted with an overall fan design which I think suits it really well!!

Christie, I'm still waiting for you to contact me. I was hoping to send it out so it would reach the winner by the 4th of July....

Monday, June 28, 2010

I always feel a little disappointed when I don't win a giveaway. So I'll preface the winner's name by saying I wish I had a little quilt for each of you that entered. It's been fun getting comments from new visitors. Don't be a stranger- please continue to leave comments for me. I love to hear from ya'll!!

The winner of the Little Quilt is..... Christie

Christie said...I too have made several of the quilts in the Little Quilts book. Would love to have your extra patriotic one that you made. I have read and reread the book too. I also have the Childhood Treasures book - great eye candy in there! Thanks a bunch! HUGS... and stitches

Please send me your mailing address and I'll get it posted asap.

Ruth from Country Log Cabin Quilter was in Central Oregon and she and her SIL came for a visit to my house. She took a few photos if you'd like to jump over to her blog and check it out.

We had a quick tour of my quilts then we enjoyed lunch out. We like a lot of the same style quilts and have corresponded for some time. It was really fun getting to meet her IRL!!

Saturday I volunteered again for the Oregon Quilt Project.It was another fantastic day!! More on that later.

P.S. Linda in NC, I'd love to see your quilt tops of Cheddar Cheese & Crackers and Strawberry Fields. Feel free to send me a photo via email. (That goes for anyone that may have missed out on adding their link)

P.S.S. Sue B. There is a pattern for the flag quilt but I don't know who the maker is- sorry!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I've been getting my patriotic decorating done this week and was surprised to find I didn't have a little quilt to display. As long as I was making one I thought I might as well make two and give one away in honor of Independence Day. I promise I'll have it done before I send it to its new home.

My love for little quilts started with this book. Mine is falling apart as I think I have made almost every quilt in here over the years....more than once. For a new quilter I could find a little project that I could actually finish. I made many for little gifts and most of the recipients loved their little quilts.

This was one of the first ones I made and the only one I have at home. It's faded and worn and has some funny little calico fabrics but I still like it.

This book is one of my latest purchases. I loved it and this many years later I'm still enamoured by little quilts!! The book talks about doll quilts made for children, and doll quilts made by children. There are many wonderful photos of children and their dolls. I highly recommend this book if you love doll quilts!!

Here's a couple of teaser pages.

So, if you'd like your very own patriotic Little Quilt leave a comment and I'll draw a winner next week. Now, I better go get some binding sewn!!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Here's a couple of little sample blocks of a project I'm getting ready to take to Sunriver for sewathon week before the Sister's show.

I saw the adorable quilt in the latest issue of AP&Q and couldn't resist. I've been working on a lot of quilts lately in the late 1800's- early 1900's period so I could search the stash for what I needed. I still have more background to cut but ideally I want to be ready to sew. I should throw another project in just in case I get bored and need to change things up...just not sure what yet.

Here's the last block of the Vicksburg BOM that Linen Closet Quilt so kindly provided from her blog. This last block printed really weird and it was hard for me to tell if the center was round or oval, so I ended up making my own circle. Overall it looks a little small for my background.

It looks like some decent weather is here at least for a few days. I have to say it is about time!!!

Friday, June 18, 2010

This looks pretty close to the same as when I showed it before, but I did add the lower row of triangle sashing. Do you all realize there are a LOT of triangles in this quilt? LOL

The end of 2009 I started swapping half square triangles with 6 other ladies. Because there are nine blocks we thought we'd swap for nine months and end up with enough hst and a great variety to make this quilt. I finished up the last three months of hst so I could free up my commitments for the summer. By my calculations when we are all done swapping all 7 of us would have made approximately 7, 119 half square triangles!!! Amazing huh?! And very cool not to have to try and get those fabric combinations all from one stash.

I may have shown this before but this is my favorite way to make half square triangles. The formula I use is the finished size+1" x 2. (example 1 1/4" finished+ 1" x 2=4 1/2" square) This is the size square I will cut from both fabrics. I wanted more hst from the fabric on the right so basically I have two squares. You can use a pen, pencil or even your Hera tool to mark diagonal lines. Then sew on both sides on the line.

Cut, press and trim. You'll get 8 hst from one square. It is pretty fast and relatively accurate, depending on your sewing!!

Oops!Last call for Strawberry Fields quilt tops not the last drink of the night. You have until midnight tonight Pacific Standard Time to enter your quilt link on this post. If you haven't seen all 17 quilts you are missing out!! I've really enjoyed seeing all of the color combinations and wonderful borders.

I'll draw two names from everyone who posted a link and you'll each win a lovely little stack of fat eighths reproduction prints. (mostly a variety of reds to celebrate our Strawberry success)

If you'd like to make larger blocks the sizes are below.

6" finished block-

A- 1 7/8" square cut on the diagonal

B- 2 1/2" squares

C- 1 7/8 square

For the setting triangles cut your squares 10 1/2" square then cut twice on the diagonal to get four quarter triangles.

For the corner triangles cut your squares 5 1/4" then cut once on the diagonal for two half triangles.

9" finished block-

A- 2 3/8" square then cut on diagonal

B-3 1/2" squares

C- 2 5/8" squares

Setting triangles- 14 3/4" squares, slice twice

Corner triangles- 7 1/2" cut on the diagonal once

Thanks again to all of you for playing along!! I am having a lot of fun doing this and LOVE the little quilts I've made so far.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

We finally had a break in our gloomy weather and couldn't resist a photo of Mt. Hood yesterday on my way home from Portland. My daughter is training for the Portland Marathon and asked if I'd want to join her in the Helvetia Half Marathon & Drop Top 10K. I signed up for the 10K and she signed up for the half marathon. We both beat the time we had planned to run it in. It really was empowering!! It must be a little what a mountain climber feels when they conquer the mountain!!!

Here are a couple more Home of the Brave blocks. I really wanted to get the previous ones mailed before company arrived last weekend but did not get a mailing address from the Oregon coordinator. I went ahead and wrote to the Washington state coordinator and sent them off to her. Of course, right after I mailed them I got an email with the address for Oregon so I thought I'd make a couple more to send. They sew up so fast!!

I've been concentrating on a hand project that I'm not quite ready to show but not a lot of stitching going on in the sewing room otherwise.

There is still time to add your Strawberry Fields quilt to the last post. Or send me a photo if you don't have a blog.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What an amazing fun week I've had. I still haven't caught up on my sleep, but hey, I can do that anytime.My nephew did graduate, as scheduled, the taco bar at his party was a hit, company made it here and back safely, we made it to Seattle and back safely and my son made it to Denmark and back safely! Whew!!

I am ready to see some wonderful Strawberry Fields quilts from our quiltalong.

Here is my finished doll quilt.

Here was my original plan from EQ. I opted not to add the border because I thought it might distract too much from the little blocks. I'm curious to see if anyone decided to add a border.

If anyone is interested in a larger block let me know in the comment section and I'll post the cutting sizes in a later post.

Please add the link to the post on your blog, not your blog address. We want your quilt to be easy to find. If you aren't finished that's OK, post it anyway.If you don't have a blog please send me a photo and I'll post it. (I'm trying the thumbnail version of Linky- so click on it to see the photo or blog post)

I'll have this open for a week to show us your quilt, then I'll have a random drawing from everyone who linked their quilt.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

I'm staying busy but not in the sewing room where I'd like to be. I've managed to get a little bit done though.

My bird pinkeeper/scissor holder doesn't look quite as good as Renee Plains does in her book, but it's growing on me. It is filled mostly with walnut litter so it's pretty heavy. Would work for a paperweight too!! It's another gift so I am hoping the recipient will like it.

I got the third block made of "Under the Big Top". I'm having fun working on this quirky quilt!!

I am planning on posting the McLinky for the Strawberry fields quilt next week. I can't wait to see all the quilts. It's ok if it's not quilted but it would be nice if the top was together. It doesn't take much time once the blocks are made.